Rendezvous with Destiny

Back before dirt when I was in the Army I decided to stop drinking beer and lazing about long enough to go through Air Assault school. 10 Days of yelling, running, learning, and jumping from helicopters. It was a wild experience.

Well, today I got some back! I met a Project Manager from one of our vendors that mentioned his time in JSOG (picture special ops) and I asked him if he was airborne and/or air assault trained and where. He mentioned he had been to Ft. Campbell Kentucky (my old base) and that’s where he got his wings. Well, at that moment revenge was mine!

There is a tradition in the military that after you complete a fairly difficult (not too if I made it) school you not only got your wings you got a coin, a challenge coin.

Air Assault Pin

One interesting item about Air Assault School was that (at least when I went through) they expected a greater than 50% failure/drop out rate. You wanted out, you left, done, gone, that’s if you haven’t f’d up and been kicked out. After you graduated and got pinned one of the traditions was to pick up a Challenge coin. I’ll have to take a picture of my coin and put it up, I can’t find my version any more. Well, more than 20 years after I earned my coin I pulled it out of my wallet and showed it to Dan, who I will admit, did Not have his on him. Now he owes me a beer! Hah!

BEEEEEER! And what’s better than beer? Free Beer!

And to make it even tastier it’s being bought by an ex Army Pathfinder! This is a good day. (-: Time to pay up boy wonder!